STATE COMMITTEE OF BLIND VENDORS

KENTUCKY BUSINESS ENTERPRISES

OFFICE FOR THE BLIND

Larry Hall
(859)684-1753

To:All Kentucky Blind Vendors and Licensees

From:Larry Hall, Chair

Date:February 27, 2015

Subject:Quarterly Meeting Minutes

KBE Committee Members in Attendance: Larry Hall, Reni Jackson, Mac Carnes, Angela Stevens, Jerry Grimes, Charlie Allen, and Clyde Mayne
KBE Committee Members Absent: Randy Hester, Mike Hartsock, Ron Wheatley and Jana Powers

Guests in Attendance: Denise Carnes, Mike Hall, Jonathan Callahan, Steven Meador, Beth Brinly and Mark Dolzadelli

OFB Staff in Attendance: Jeff Garrison, Allison Flanagan, Amy Mefford and Jessica Whittaker

The 1st committee meeting of 2015 was held on Saturday January 24, 2015 at the CHR Building located in Frankfort, KY. The meeting was called to order at 9:12 am. Reni Jackson led the group in prayer.

Chairman’s Report – Larry Hall

  • Larry began the meeting by pointing out that the meetings are not for the purposes of offending anyone.
  • The intent is to come together and compromise with the agency and move the program forward.
  • The assistant director position has posted.
  • Repair is in trouble, machines are old. Not enough repair people. When machines are down our vendors lose money
  • It might be a good idea to combine a repair and coordinator position into one

Executive Director Report – Allison Flanagan

  • Our Deputy Secretary, Beth Brinly is joining us today.
  • KBE is enforcing late setaside penalties and rules and regs. KBE takes full blame for letting the set aside situation get out of hand. We had 23 vendors behind in December. Of the 23, 6 are still behind 2 months. Those 6 received a letter with penalties. When a vendor is 2 months behind on set aside they are not permitted to bid. After 3 months of being late a vendor may be removed from the facility.
  • Larry Hall recommends being harsh on vendors who are not following the rules. Vendors have become too dependent.
  • Larry Hall recommends no insurance reimbursement for those not paying set asides.
  • The agency is not issuing reimbursements to vendors who don’t pay their set asides.
  • We currently do not have any new trainees to place. We will be holding a vending training in the near future.
  • Allison – new sites. Get notes
  • Lagrange federal prison wants the KBE vendor and equipment out of their facility. Our attorney Patrick is addressing the situation
  • No bids were received on KSU. The second bid is up January 28.
  • Cecil Cox resigned from APH. An emergency vendor has been placed to help train Lynn Florence. Upward Mobility was involved in this decision.
  • We are currently researching to see if calorie counts will be required to be posted on machines. Reni Jackson pointed out that if you have less than 20 machines per facility that you are not required to post calorie counts
  • We have had some issues with health inspections. The Fayette County health department says that we have to license cold food machines and coffee machines. We are looking at KRS to verify but OFB is not required to be licensed because we are the Office for the Blind as stated in KRS 217.809.
  • Gilbert Burchell is leaving his repair position. We will replace him with an ADECCO employee for now.
  • We are currently looking at online vendor training with the Hadley School. The expected cost is $3500.00 per individual.
  • We had 4 applicants for the upcoming vendor training.
  • We are in the process of updating vendor contact information. Please contact Amy Mefford at 502-782-3411 or with updated contact information, including e-mail addresses.
  • Kevin Pearl is the new vendor at Gene Snyder

Budget Report – Jessica Whittaker

  • The agency pulls down all matching federal funds possible.
  • We have a detailed budgets, have budgets for each program
  • Get notes from Jessica

Repair Issues

  • Jeff Garrison pointed out that the repair staff is taken advantage of. Recently a repair person was called to empty a coffee bucket.
  • Mac Carnes stated that repair is the most important area of focus at this time.
  • Charles Allen stated that the repair staff doesn’t return calls in a timely manner and the repair staff needs to work on customer service.
  • Repairmen are also being called to change prices. Larry Hall feels that vendors should change their own prices and this is not the repair staff’s job.
  • Jeff Garrison will continue to assist with repairs.

New Business

  • Larry Hall - We need to find a way to resolve bids being delayed due to vendors turning down locations. This needs to be addressed in our rules and regs.
  • Larry Hall – We still have issues with “vendor owing vendor” for inventories. We need to look again at the agency purchasing inventories.
  • NAMA will be held in April in Las Vegas
  • Copies of Rules and Regs have been provided to the committee in large print and Braille
  • Each committee member has been assigned 4 vendors from our program to contact and ask questions on how to improve our program
  • Kathy Fowler from Public Health will attend the General Assembly

2015-2016 Blind Vendor Committee
Charles Allen
Mac Carnes
Jerry Grimes
Larry Hall
Mike Hartsock
Randy Hester
Reni Jackson
Clyde “Buster” Mayne
Angela Stevens

Roger Wheatley

2015-2016 Chairperson – Larry Hall
2015-2016 Co-Chair – Reni Jackson
Sub committees
Upward Mobility – Mac Carnes, Chair, Jerry Grimes and Clyde Mayne
Grievance – Mike Hartsock, Chair, Jana Powers, Randy Hester and Angela Stevens
Finance – Charles Allen, Chair, Reni Jackson, Ron Wheatley, Mike Hartsock and Randy Hester
Technology – Reni Jackson, Chair, Charles Allen. Reni will recruit more volunteers for this committee
Workforce Committee – Steven Meador and Mark Dolzadelli

The meeting adjourned at 11:30 am. Reni Jackson motioned to dismiss, Clyde Mayne second.

The next meeting will be held on April 25, 2015 at the CHR Building in Frankfort, KY.